Now, can I just get this straight please? Barbra Streisand may have cancelled her upcoming Rome concert, but that is not, repeat not, anything to do with those protests last week by Italian consumer rights groups who said the publicly owned Stadio Flaminio should refuse to stage the concert because the ticket prices - between 150 euros (£100) and 900 euros (£600) - were, quite frankly, "absurd and shameful". Nor is it anything to do with reports in the Rome media that ticket sales for the over priced event were somewhat slow. It is entirely, 100%, completely and utterly to do with "production problems", and nothing else. At all. OK? Good.
As previously reported, consumer rights groups Adusbef and Codacons last week hit out and accused promoters of the event of ripping off consumers, adding that City Of Rome officials should not allow such extortion to happen at one of their venues. At the time of that protest, local media reported that ticket sales for the Rome concert were slow, and that all but the cheapest tickets were still available, compared to instant sell outs elsewhere in Europe. But when organisers of the event, on confirming the Rome concert was cancelled this weekend, were asked if the consumer rights groups' protests had been behind their decision, a spokeswoman said "Absolutely not".
Streisand's European tour will now start in Vienna on 21 Jun, and arrive in London on 18 Jul where there are seemingly enough idiots willing to buy tickets at similarly extortionate prices to justify a three night residency at the rather large The O2. The O2 is just one tube stop away from CMU HQ so I'm thinking of nipping over there and pick-pocketing all those Streisand fans. It would be easy - clearly these people have no awareness of when they're being robbed.